It was time to make room in the Jefferson trophy case for another pole vault championship at the Georgia Olympics on Thursday. Hamrick, a freshman, was the only Class AA vaulter to clear 13 feet, and he only needed one try.

Last year, Tyler Porter finished a run of three straight state championships before he went on to vault at Tennessee, and Chris King also won multiple titles in the mid-1980s.

That tradition is where Hamrick said he got the motivation to win state as a freshman, a first even for the Dragons.

"It's what I've been looking to do since I started pole vaulting," said Hamrick, who narrowly missed a personal best of 13-7. "It's all I've thought about. Now that it's a reality, it's just overwhelming. It's blowing my mind. I've got to thank the man upstairs, without him, I wouldn't be here."

The state meet was identical to the Region 8-AA meet, where Hamrick won and North Oconee junior Isaac Toney finished second.

Hamrick and Toney were confident they'd have a good showing at state after their region meet had four of the top six vaulters in Georgia.

Yet Hamrick said he was nervous after he saw how many vaulters cleared 12-6, and noted how much they could improve in two weeks.

Thursday, Toney was one of four to clear 12-6, which matched the personal best he set two weeks ago at the region meet.

"Once I got to my best, I figured maybe I had a chance at it," said Toney, who only had one fault before the bar reached 13 feet.

For Toney, the season's improvement was gradual. He started the year at 10-6, and reached 12-6 at the region and state meets.

"It was improvement that I wanted to make," he said. "It's good improvement for a year."

While Hamrick met one of his regular goals of winning a meet, he fell short of a personal best. He did, however, set up a chance for a new achievement: becoming a four-time state champion.

"Since I started vaulting, I set out to be a four-time state champion, to do that, no one else has done it," he said. "That's what I'm going to shoot for, the next three years. I'm not going to let this get in my head. I'm just going to go out and bust it like I have every other season."